FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The instant invention relates to a method and apparatus for sensing a drop in operating pressure below a predetermined range of operating pressure experienced by a low pressure refrigerant line of a closed-loop refrigerant circuit and wherein the sensed drop in pressure causes a refrigerant purging and storage system to pump, for a predetermined time only, refrigerant from the refrigerant circuit and to store the refrigerant in a pressure vessel, independent of return flow of refrigerant from the pressurized vessel into the refrigerant circuit.